While raccoons are known rabies carriers, veterinarians statewide say skunks now are the primary culprit in Colorado. Skunks are common carriers elsewhere in the U.S., but the fact that the black-and- white stink bombs are responsible for the local spike surprised many, said Roehr. Prior to 2007, skunk rabies was nearly nonexistent in Colorado, he said.

"There's been a westward progression of rabies, so at this point, all counties east of I-25 have reported skunk rabies," Roehr said.

With rabid skunks roaming nearly a third of the state, eastern Colorado counties have embraced precautionary measures. Raising awareness and getting animals vaccinated — particularly in Larimer and Weld counties — has become a high priority for the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment as well as local veterinarians, including Julie Kidd, who vaccinated some of Barber's 18 animals from her mobile Platte Valley Veterinary Services clinic Friday.

"I've gotten a lot of questions about rabies lately," said Kidd, who makes house calls around northern Colorado.

Barber, who has four dogs, six horses and eight barn cats on her property, also gives riding lessons to children. Because there are always people on her property, Barber said she vaccinates all of her animals.

"What if I didn't get the cats vaccinated, and what if one of them got bit by a skunk and I didn't know it? What if that cat bites one of my kids while we're out in the horse pasture?" Barber said. "As a pet owner, you have to be responsible for getting your pets their shots."

The last known human rabies fatality in Colorado was in August 1931, when a 62-year-old woman was bitten by a rabid dog.

"It's not that common," said Alex Turner, a veterinarian and co-owner of Mobile Veterinary Services, a clinic based out of Golden. "But if someone were to get bit and die — that death was entirely preventable."

Humans are most frequently exposed to rabies because they are unable to recognize symptoms of infection, Turner said.

"A lot of times, rabies masquerades as something different," said Turner, who explained that movies and novels have dramatized the virus' bizarre and lethal traits and established the snarling, foaming-at-the-mouth dog as the face of rabies.

"When you say rabies, the first thing that comes to people's mind is Cujo, then Old Yeller, then a bat flying into someone's hair and killing them," Turner said.

These stereotypes have made it difficult for people to identify any nonaggressive forms of rabies, or rabies in animals other than dogs and bats. For example, a rabid horse may be lethargic and dehydrated, he said.

Rebecca Ruch-Gallie, the clinical coordinator for community practice at Colorado State University Veterinary Teaching Hospital, said Larimer Humane Society has partnered with CSU to host a no-cost rabies vaccination clinic in mid-August at two locations in Fort Collins.

While low-cost or no-cost clinics are a good incentive, Turner said a rabies vaccine — regardless of price — is a necessary shot for all pets.

"There is only one vaccine we give that would protect the animal as well as people — and that's a rabies vaccine," Turner said.

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